Investors gobble up Cirtek offer

MANILA, Philippines - The ongoing follow-on offering of Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. has been well received by institutional investors, the issue manager said.

“It’s well-received by the institutional investors, with the offer multiple times covered,” First Metro Investments Corp. (FMIC) president Roberto Juanchito Dispo said.

He said the offer, priced at P20 per share, provides significant upside and promotes healthy after-market demand.

Demand is expected to strengthen, Dispo said.

The offer period will run until Nov. 4 while the listing of the shares has been set on Nov. 10.

First Metro and SB Capital Corp. are the joint lead underwriters for the issue.

Cirtek Holdings expects to raise P2.88 billion from the offering with bulk of the proceeds will be used to fund  acquisitions.

Jerry Liu, chairman of Cirtek, said the company is interested in overseas acquisitions, with a focus on “advanced technology.”

In the Philippines, the company is seeking to double the capacity of its Laguna manufacturing plant to two billion chips a year. 

Cirtek is also optimistic on the success of its new technology dubbed as TV White Space also called Super Wi-Fi which allows the use of banks that are currently unlicensed.

Of the P1.85 billion net proceeds, P630.7 million will be used to fund strategic acquisitions, P631.9 million for capital expenditures, P314.1 million for working capital requirements and P278.2 million for payment of financial obligations.

The offering involves the issuance of up to 80 million primary common shares with an oversubscription option of 40 million secondary shares.

Since its initial public offering in 2011, Citek has been operating as a provider of semi-conductor outsources assembly and testing (OSAT) services to customers, who in turn provide these semiconductor packages to end applications.